Fox of France

Dumouriez was at the forefront on horseback, Joseph and Napoleon were also on horseback, sabers in hand, and the soldiers followed them, approaching the smoky heights of the Hot Map.

Perhaps it was because of exhaustion, or because of the cover of the fog on the battlefield, the Austrians did not respond immediately, and Di Mourier was naturally happy to bring the soldiers closer.

Gradually, the team had entered the range of the Austrian artillery. Dumouriez yelled again and moved forward, and the command knife in his hand slashed forward a few times. The soldiers began to accelerate forward in column, but Dumouriez slowed down and gradually fell behind the ranks.

Joseph followed Dumouriez and slowed down, approaching. What they did in front of them was just to boost morale. A serious battle is not the one-on-one battle of the generals in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", nor the duel of knights in the knight novels. There is no reason for the commander to really rush forward.

Joseph reined in the horse, and nodded to Di Mourier who also reined in the horse, and then turned around, suddenly found...Damn it! What about Napoleon? Where did Napoleon go? Didn't he just follow behind? We didn't cross the river just now, how could Napoleon disappear?

Joseph looked around anxiously, and suddenly he saw a guy on a horse at the front of the team, brandishing a shining saber, leading the team forward.

"Damn it, this second cancer!" Joseph cursed fiercely in his heart.

"Joseph, why did your brother rush to the front... I can't tell, he is so small, but he is really brave!" At this time, Dumouriez also found that Napoleon had rushed to the front.

"Brave ass! It's completely burnt out!" Joseph cursed viciously. At the same time, I decided in my heart that when I come back in a while, I must teach this brat a lesson and let him know why the flowers are so popular!

At this time, the Austrians also began to react, and the Austrian cannons began to shoot continuously at the advancing French army. The speed of cannonballs in this era is relatively slow, so that Joseph can see with the naked eye those small black dot-like cannonballs slowly rising from the high ground, and then slowly rising to the high place, and seem to have stopped there , then suddenly accelerated and fell, throwing up a cloud of dust on the ground, and at the same time rebounded, like a little rabbit, bouncing forward all the way. One of the shells whizzed past not far from Joseph with a whistling sound. Joseph was so scared that he almost retracted his neck into his torso.

"Napoleon is closer and certainly more dangerous, the damned bastard!" thought Joseph.

"I can't let him be alone in that kind of place!" Joseph shouted at Di Mourier, then swung his whip, drove the horse, and chased after Napoleon.

"Ah, Joseph usually looks like an old pedant, so I don't think he is so brave." Dumouriez shook his head. But he did not catch up. He is the coach and must stay behind to preside over the overall situation.

Joseph chased after him angrily, and grabbed the reins of Napoleon's horse: "Bastard, do you have a hole in your head? I called you here just to show your face in front of the soldiers. Why did you come here? You messed up What are you running! Hurry up and go back with me!"

Napoleon turned his face and looked at Joseph with a strange expression: "Joseph, do you have a hole in your head? It's all here, can you turn around?"

Joseph was taken aback by these words, but he immediately understood what Napoleon meant:

Just now Dumouriez was boosting morale, he gradually fell behind, and the soldiers probably would not notice, so it is not a problem that he finally retreated. But if Napoleon and Joseph turned back like this at this time, it would shake the morale of the army.

"You damn bastard!" The more he thought about the current situation, the angrier Joseph became, because it meant that he had to go crazy with this brat now!

"Hahaha..." Maybe it was because he successfully tricked his elder brother that Napoleon actually became proud, so it is said that the brat is so itchy.

"Joseph, you actually rushed here for my safety. I am very touched, really!" Just when Joseph was so angry that he was about to hit Napoleon with a horsewhip, Napoleon suddenly changed his face and said this sentence again .

"Bah! There's no use in being moved! You're not a woman!" Joseph cursed, but the whip was put down.

At this time, a shell flew over and just hit a small column not far away.

The shell hit the chest of the flag bearer who rushed to the front, smashing him to pieces, and then took advantage of the opportunity to string a large row of people behind with blood gourds. And the flagpole in the flag bearer's hand was also broken into two sections. The flag first flew high, and then swirled in the air and fell down.

At this time, a hand stretched out, held the broken flagpole, and then raised the tricolor flag high again.

It was Napoleon's hand, and he caught the falling standard, lifted it aloft, then jumped off his horse, turned his head, and shouted to the other soldiers who were petrified by the cannon: " Fighters of France, for the sake of the motherland, follow me!"

The soldiers were inspired by the short officer holding the military flag high, and they shouted, followed the short man and continued to move forward.

Joseph gritted his teeth, pulled out his saber, and urged his horse to follow.

"Idiot! Get off your horse! Your target is so conspicuous, you will become a magnet for bullets!" Napoleon scolded, pulling Joseph off his horse.

Joseph was slightly touched, but in a blink of an eye, his heart was filled with anger again: "Dog, if it weren't for you, a brat, I'm just hanging around right now, I don't know how safe it is... Fuck, I don't even have a gun, There's only this saber!"

Joseph would never have imagined that the scene between him and his bear boy brother today would soon become the content of a world-famous painting. After the news of the victory of this battle came back to Paris, the painter Jacques-Louis David (a friend of Armand, the author of "The Oath of the Horatii" and later "The Death of Marat") heard about Bonaparte's death. After the heroic act of the Ba brothers, they were so excited that they created a painting called "France, Onward".

In this painting, Jacques-Louis David broke through the shackles of neoclassical painting represented by himself before, and opened up a new style. The background of the painting is iron and lead-colored gunpowder smoke and thick clouds. In the middle, Napoleon in military uniform held high the tricolor flag symbolizing the Republic in one hand, turned his head halfway, showing a resolute side face, as if he was shouting at the soldiers behind him. At his feet lay the bodies of fallen warriors, and on his right a little back, followed by Joseph who rushed up with a saber in his hand. Farther away, there are soldiers in blue military uniforms, holding rifles with bayonets, charging forward.

The corpses lying on the ground, the fighting warriors, and Napoleon holding the French flag high form a stable and dynamic triangle. The tricolor flag symbolizing freedom, equality and fraternity is located at the apex of the isosceles triangle. In the history of art compiled by later generations, most of this painting is regarded as the first of the emergence of romantic painting.

But at this time, Joseph didn't care whether his image would appear in the painting. In fact, he was extremely nervous, and he didn't have the awe-inspiring demeanor in the painting at all. However, their column did not become the target of concentrated fire. Because their team had just been hit by a cannon, the forward speed fell behind the other teams. This caused the Austrians to pour more firepower onto other columns.

Napoleon's legs were short and he couldn't run very fast. As for Joseph, if he was running backwards, he would definitely be able to run as fast as a reporter from a certain place, but if he was running forward, forget it. While rushing, Joseph looked around, looking for bunkers that might be used in the future, and was ready to drag Napoleon behind the bunker at any time. The other fighters rushed very fast, so the two of them gradually fell behind the team.

The other columns performed well, and by the time Joseph and Napoleon charged into the Austrian positions, the Austrian defenses had practically collapsed.

Napoleon took his saber and went around looking for an Austrian to hack, but...

"Damn it, why are the Austrians running so fast? You can't find a living person!" Napoleon complained while panting.

"That's because your legs are too short! If an Austrian takes one step, you need to take two steps." Joseph held the knife and looked around, guarding against the Austrians who might suddenly appear from somewhere, and seized the time Sarcasm Napoleon, good to vent the anger in my heart.

Napoleon habitually planned to retort, but looking at Joseph's livid face, and thinking about this coward, he actually rushed to the battlefield for his own sake today, so he couldn't sneer, so he simply Give him a "hehe".

In this battle, the French army killed more than 600 people, plus more than 1,300 people were injured, a total loss of about 2,000 people. As for Austria, more than 300 people were killed, more than 500 were injured, and more than 600 people were captured, a total of about 1,500 people were lost. If only the exchange ratio is counted, the Austrians seem to have a little bit of the upper hand.

However, this is a defensive battle relying on terrain advantages and fortifications, and the French are mainly poorly trained volunteers. Even so, the Austrians were unable to withstand the French attack for even a day. If there is no terrain advantage and the bonus of fortifications, they will definitely be hanged and beaten by the French. This battle actually illustrates the point that even France's undertrained volunteer army is enough to deal with the Austrians in various battles.